The band formed at secondary school
in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical
proficiency. Within four years, they signed to Island Records and released their debut album. By the mid-1980s, they had
become a top international act. They were more successful as a live
act than they were at selling records, until their 1987 album
The Joshua Tree, which,
according to Rolling Stone,
elevated the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". Their 1991
album Achtung Baby and the
accompanying Zoo TV Tour were a musical
and thematic reinvention for the band. Reacting to their own sense
of musical stagnation and a late-1980's critical backlash, U2
incorporated dance music and
alternative rock into their sound
and performances, replacing their earnest image with a more ironic
tone. Since 2000, U2 have pursued a more conventional sound, while
maintaining influences from their 1990's musical
explorations.

U2 have released 12 studio albums, with worldwide sales totaling
more than 145 million records, and they have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band.
In 2005,
the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.Rolling Stone magazine listed
U2 at #22 in its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
Throughout their career, as a band and as individuals, they have
campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes, including
Amnesty International, the
ONE Campaign, Product Red, and Bono's DATA
campaign.

History

Formation and early years (1976–79)

The band formed in Dublin on 25 September 1976. Larry Mullen, Jr., then 14 years old,
posted a notice on his secondary school (Mount Temple Comprehensive
School) notice board in search of musicians for a new band.
Setting up in his kitchen, Mullen later described it as "'The Larry
Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew
any chance I had of being in charge." Mullen was on drums, Paul Hewson on lead vocals, Dave
Evans and his older brother Dik Evans
on guitar, Adam Clayton, a friend of
the Evans brothers on bass guitar, and initially Ivan McCormick and
Peter Martin, two other friends of Mullen. Soon after, the group
settled on the name "Feedback", because it was one of the few
technical terms they knew. Martin did not return after the first
practice, and McCormick left the group within a few weeks. Most of
the group's material initially consisted of cover versions, which
the band said was not their forte. The band's early original
material was influenced by punk rock acts
such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols.

In March 1977, the band changed their name to "The Hype". Dik
Evans, who was older and by this time at college, was becoming the
odd man out. The rest of the band was leaning towards the idea of a
four-piece ensemble and he was "phased out" in March 1978.
During a
farewell concert in the Presbyterian Church Hall in Howth, which
featured The Hype playing covers, Dik ceremoniously walked
offstage. The remaining four band members completed the
concert playing original material as "U2". Steve Averill, a punk
rock musician and family friend of Clayton's, had suggested six
potential names from which the band chose "U2" for its ambiguity
and open-ended interpretations, and because it was the name that
they disliked the least.

On
Saint Patrick's Day in 1978, U2
won a talent show in Limerick,
Ireland. The prize consisted of £500 and studio time
to record a demo which would be heard by CBS Ireland. This win was
an important milestone and affirmation for the fledgling band. The
band recorded their first demo tape at Keystone Studios in Dublin,
in May 1978. Hot Press magazine
was influential in shaping the band's future; in May, Paul McGuinness, who had earlier been
introduced to the band by the magazine's journalist Bill Graham,
agreed to be U2's manager. U2's first
release, an Ireland-only EP entitled Three, was released in September 1979 and
was the band's first Irish chart success. In December 1979, U2
performed in London for their first shows outside Ireland, although
they failed to get much attention from audiences or critics. In
February 1980, their second single "Another Day" was released on the CBS
label, but again only for the Irish market.

Boy, October, and War (1980–83)

Island Records signed U2 in March
1980, and in May, the band released "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" as their first
international single. The band's debut album, Boy, followed in October. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite and received generally
positive reviews. Although Bono's lyrics were unfocused and
seemingly improvised, a common theme was the dreams and
frustrations of adolescence. The album included the band's first
United Kingdom hit single, "I Will
Follow". Boy's release was followed by U2's first tour
of continental Europe and the United States. Despite being
unpolished, these early live performances demonstrated U2's
potential, as critics noted that Bono was a "charismatic" and
"passionate" showman.

The band's second album, October, was released in 1981 and
contained overtly spiritual themes. During the album's recording
sessions, Bono and The Edge left the band due to spiritual
conflicts, and U2 ceased to exist for a brief period of time. Bono,
The Edge, and Mullen had joined a Christian group in Dublin called
the 'Shalom Fellowship', which led them to question the
relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll
lifestyle. Ultimately, they left the group to continue with the
band. Recording was further complicated when a
briefcase containing lyrics for several working songs was stolen
from backstage during the band's performance at a nightclub in
Portland,
Oregon. The album received mixed reviews and limited radio
play. Low sales outside the UK put pressure on their contract with
Island and focused the band on improvement.

Resolving their doubts of the October period, U2 released
War in 1983. A record where the
band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade", War's
sincerity and "rugged" guitar was intentionally at odds with the
"cooler" synthpop of the time. The album
included the politically-charged "Sunday Bloody Sunday", where
Bono had lyrically tried to contrast the events of Bloody Sunday with Easter Sunday. Rolling
Stone magazine wrote that the song showed the band was
capable of deep and meaningful songwriting. War was U2's
first album to feature the photography of Anton Corbijn, who remains U2's principal
photographer and has had a major influence on their vision and
public image. U2's first commercial success, War debuted
at number one in the UK, and its first single, "New Year's Day", was the band's first
hit outside Ireland or the UK.

On the subsequent War Tour, the band
performed sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the US. Bono,
waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday",
became the tour's iconic image. U2 recorded the Under a Blood Red Sky live album
on this tour, as well as the Live at Red
Rocks concert film, both of which received extensive play
on the radio and MTV, expanding the band's
audience and showcasing their live performance. Their record deal
with Island Records was coming to an end, and in 1984 the band
signed a more lucrative extension. They negotiated the return of
their copyrights (so that they owned the rights to their own
songs), an increase in their royalty rate, and a general
improvement in terms, at the expense of a larger initial
payment.

The Unforgettable Fire and Live Aid (1984–85)

The Unforgettable
Fire was released in 1984. Ambient and abstract, it was at the time the
band's most marked change in direction. The band feared that
following the overt rock of the War album and tour, they
were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering
arena-rock band". Thus, experimentation was sought as Adam Clayton
recalls, "We were looking for something that was a bit more
serious, more arty." The Edge admired the ambient and "weird works"
of Brian Eno, who, along with his engineerDaniel
Lanois, eventually agreed to produce the record.

The Unforgettable Fire has a rich and orchestrated sound.
Under Lanois' direction, Mullen's drumming became looser, funkier,
and more subtle and Clayton's bass became more subliminal; the
rhythm section no longer intruded, but flowed in support of the
songs. Complementing the sonic atmospherics, the album's lyrics are
open to many interpretations, providing what the band called a
"very visual feel". Bono's recent immersion in fiction, philosophy,
and poetry made him realise that his songwriting
responsibility—about which he had always been reluctant—was a
poetic one. Due to a tight recording schedule, however, Bono felt
songs like "Bad" and "Pride " were incomplete
"sketches". "Pride (In the Name of Love)", about Martin Luther King, Jr., was the
album's first single and became the band's biggest hit to that
point, including being their first to enter the U.S. top 40.

Much of The Unforgettable
Fire Tour moved into indoor arenas as U2 began to win their
long battle to build their audience. The complex textures of the
new studio-recorded tracks, such as "The Unforgettable Fire" and
"Bad", were problematic to translate to live performance. One
solution was programmed sequencers,
which the band had previously been reluctant to use, but are now
used in the majority of the band's performances. Songs on the album
had been criticised as being "unfinished", "fuzzy", and
"unfocused", but were better received by critics when played on
stage.

U2
participated in the Live Aid concert for
Ethiopian famine
relief at Wembley Stadium in July 1985. U2's performance was a pivotal
point in the band's career. During the song "Bad", Bono leapt down
off the stage to embrace and dance with a fan, showing a television
audience of millions the personal connection that Bono could make
with audiences. In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine called U2
the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of
rock-and-roll fans, U2 have become the band that matters most,
maybe even the only band that matters".

The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum
(1986–89)

Motivated by friendships with Bob Dylan,
Van Morrison, and Keith Richards, the band looked back to the
roots of rock music, and Bono focused on his skills as a song and
lyric writer. Realising "that U2 had no tradition", the band
explored American blues, country, and gospel
music. For their fifth album, the band wanted to build on
The Unforgettable Fire's atmospherics, but instead of its
out-of-focus tracks, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the
strict discipline of conventional song structures. U2 interrupted
their 1986 album sessions to serve as a headline act on Amnesty International'sA Conspiracy of Hope tour. Rather than
a distraction, the tour added extra intensity and power to their
new music. In 1986 Bono travelled to San Salvador and Nicaragua, and saw first-hand the distress of peasants
bullied in internal conflicts that were subject to American
political intervention. The experience became a central
influence on the new music.

The Joshua Tree was
released in March 1987. The album juxtaposes antipathy towards
America against the band's deep fascination with the country, its
open spaces, freedom, and what it stands for. The band wanted music
with a sense of location, a 'cinematic' quality and the album's
music and lyrics draw on imagery created by American writers whose
works the band had been reading.The Joshua Tree became the
fastest-selling album in British chart history, and was number one
for nine weeks in the United States. The album's first two singles,
"With or Without You" and
"I Still
Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", quickly went to number one
in the U.S. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the
cover of Time magazine,
which declared U2 "Rock's Hottest Ticket". It won U2 their first
two Grammy Awards. The album brought U2
a new level of success and is cited by Rolling Stone as
one of rock's greatest. The Joshua
Tree Tour was the first during which the band played numerous
stadium shows alongside smaller arena shows.

The documentary Rattle and
Hum featured footage recorded from The Joshua Tree Tour,
and the accompanying double album of the same name included nine
studio tracks and six live U2 performances. Released in October
1988, the album and film were intended as a tribute to American
music, and included recordings at Sun
Studios in Memphis and performances with Bob
Dylan and B.B.King. Rattle and
Hum performed modestly at the box office and received mixed
reviews from both film and music critics; one Rolling
Stone editor spoke of the album's "excitement", another
described it as "bombastic and misguided". The film's director,
Phil Joanou, described it as "an overly
pretentious look at U2". Most of the album's new material was
played on 1989's Lovetown Tour, which
played in Australia, Japan and Europe, because the band wanted to
avoid the American backlash. In addition, they had grown
disatisfied with their live performances; Mullen recalled that "We
were the biggest, but we weren't the best". With a sense of musical
stagnation, Bono said on one of the last dates of the Tour that it
was "the end of something for U2..." and that they had to "... go
away and just dream it all up again".

Achtung Baby, Zoo TV, and Zooropa
(1990–93)

Stung by the criticism of Rattle and Hum, the band made a
calculated change in musical and thematic direction for their
seventh studio album, Achtung
Baby; the change was their most dramatic since The
Unforgettable Fire. The band began work on Achtung
Baby in East Berlin in October 1990 with producers Daniel
Lanois and Brian Eno, seeking inspiration and renewal on the eve of
German reunification. The
sessions instead proved to be difficult, as conflict arose within
the band over their musical direction and the quality of their
material. While Clayton and Mullen preferred a sound similar to
U2's previous work, Bono and Edge were inspired by alternative rock and European dance music and advocated a change.
Weeks of slow progress, arguments, and tension subsided when the
band rallied around a chord progression The Edge had written to
improvise the song "One". The band
completed the album in 1991 in Dublin.

In November 1991, U2 released Achtung Baby. Sonically, the
album incorporated alternative rock, dance, and industrial influences of the time and the
band referred to the album as the sound of "four men chopping down
the Joshua Tree". Thematically, it was a more inward-looking and
personal record; it was darker, yet at times more flippant, than
the band's previous work. Commercially and critically, it has been
one of the band's most successful albums and was a crucial part of
the band's early 1990s reinvention. Like The Joshua Tree,
it is cited by Rolling Stone as one of rock's
greatest.

The Zoo TV stage featured a complex
setup with over 30 video screens.

The Zoo TV Tour of 1992–1993 was a
multimedia event, and showcased an
extravagant but intentionally bewildering array of hundreds of
video screens, upside-down flying Trabant
cars, mock transmission towers, satellite TV links, subliminal messages, and Bono's
over-the-top stage characters such as "The Fly", "Mirror-Ball Man", and "(Mister)
MacPhisto". The extravagant shows were intentionally in contrast to
the austere staging of previous U2 tours, and mocked the excesses
of rock and roll by appearing to embrace these very excesses. The
shows were, in part, U2's way to represent the pervasive nature of
cable television and its blurring of news, entertainment, and home
shopping. Prank phone calls were made to President Bush, the United Nations, and others. Live satellite uplinks
to war-torn Sarajevo caused controversy.

Quickly recorded and released during a break in the Zoo TV tour in
mid-1993, the Zooropa album
continued many of the themes from Achtung Baby and the Zoo
TV tour. Initially intended as an EP,
the band expanded Zooropa into a full-length LP album. It was an even greater departure from the
style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno influences and other electronic effects.
Johnny Cash sang the vocal on the
"The Wanderer". Most of the
songs were played at least once during the 1993 leg of the tour,
which extended through Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan;
half the album's tracks became fixtures in the set.

Passengers, Pop, and PopMart (1994–99)

In 1995, U2 released an experimental album called Original Soundtracks 1. Brian
Eno, producer of three previous U2 albums, contributed as a full
partner, including writing and performing. For this reason, and due
to the record's highly experimental nature, the band chose to
release it under the moniker "Passengers" to distinguish it from
U2's conventional albums. Mullen said of the album, "There's a thin
line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it
on the Passengers record." It was commercially unnoticed by U2
standards and it received generally poor reviews. However, the
single "Miss Sarajevo" featuring
Luciano Pavarotti, which Bono
cites as one of his favourite U2 songs, was a hit.

On 1997's Pop, U2 continued
experimenting; tape loops, programming, rhythm sequencing, and
sampling provided much of the album
with heavy, funky dance rhythms. Released in March, the album
debuted at number one in 35 countries, and drew mainly positive
reviews. Rolling Stone, for example, stated that U2 had
"defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their
lives". Others felt that the album was a major disappointment and
sales were poor compared to previous U2 releases. The band was
hurried into completing the album in time for the impending
pre-booked tour, and Bono admitted that the album "didn't
communicate the way it was intended to".

The subsequent tour, PopMart, commenced
in April 1997. Like Zoo TV, it poked fun at pop culture and was
intended to send a sarcastic message to those accusing U2 of
commercialism. The stage included a tall golden yellow arch
(reminiscent of the McDonald's logo), a
long video screen, and a tall mirrorball lemon. U2's "big shtick"
failed, however, to satisfy many who were seemingly confused by the
band's new kitsch image and elaborate sets. The late delivery of
Pop meant rehearsal time was severely reduced, and
performances in early shows suffered. A highlight of the
tour was a concert in Sarajevo where U2 were the first major group to perform
following the Bosnian War. Mullen
described the concert as "an experience I will never forget for the
rest of my life, and if I had to spend 20 years in the band just to
play that show, and have done that, I think it would have been
worthwhile." One month following the conclusion of the PopMart
Tour, U2 appeared on the 200th episode of The Simpsons, "Trash of the Titans", in which Homer Simpson disrupted the band on stage
during a PopMart concert.

"Reapplying for the job of the best band in the world"
(2000–06)

Following the comparatively poor reception of Pop, U2
declared they were "reapplying for the job ... [of] the best
band in the world", and have since pursued a more conventional rock
sound mixed with the influences of their 1990s musical
explorations. All
That You Can't Leave Behind was released in October 2000
and was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. For many of those
not won over by the band's 1990s music, it was considered a return
to grace; Rolling Stone called it U2's "third masterpiece"
alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. The
album debuted at number one in 22 countries and its worldwide hit
single, "Beautiful Day" earned three
Grammy Awards, as did the album's three
other singles.

For the Elevation Tour, U2 performed
in a scaled-down setting, returning to arenas after nearly a decade
of stadium productions. A heart-shaped stage and ramp permitted
greater proximity to the audience. Following the September 11 attacks, the new album
gained added resonance, and in October, U2 performed at Madison
Square Garden in New York City. Bono and the Edge later
said these New York City shows were among their most memorable and
emotional performances. In early 2002, U2 performed during halftime
of Super Bowl XXXVI, which SI.com ranked as the best halftime show in Super Bowl
history.

The band's next studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic
Bomb, was released in November 2004. The band were looking
for a harder-hitting rock sound than All That You Can't Leave
Behind. Thematically, Bono states that "A lot of the songs are
paeans to naiveté, a rejection of knowingness." The first single,
"Vertigo", was featured on a
widely-aired television commercial for the AppleiPod, and a U2 iPod and an iTunes U2 box set was released. The
album debuted at number one in the U.S. where first week sales
doubled that of All That You Can't Leave Behind and set a
record for the band. Claiming it as a contender as one of U2's
three best albums, Bono said, "There are no weak songs. But as an
album, the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, and it
fucking annoys me." The Vertigo Tour
featured a set list that varied more across dates than any U2 tour
since the Lovetown Tour, and included songs not played since the
early 1980s. Like the Elevation Tour, the Vertigo Tour was a
commercial success. The album and its singles won Grammy Awards in
all eight categories in which U2 were nominated. In 2005, Bruce Springsteen inducted U2 into the
Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. A 3-Dconcert film, U2
3D, filmed at nine concerts during the South America leg of the Vertigo Tour was
released on 23 January 2008.

In August 2006, the band incorporated its publishing business in
The Netherlands following the capping of Irish artists' tax
exemption at €250,000. Dave Evans stated that businesses often seek
to minimize their tax burdens. The move was criticised in the
Irish parliament. The band said the
criticism was unfair, stating that approximately 95% of their
business took place outside of Ireland, that they were taxed
globally because of this, and that they were all "personal
investors and employers in the country".

No Line on the Horizon and U2 360° Tour
(2007–present)

The band's 360-degree stage layout
from their 2009 U2 360° Tour

The band began work on their twelfth album No Line on the Horizon in 2006,
originally writing and recording with producer Rick Rubin, but the material was shelved. The
band subsequently chose to begin writing and recording for the
album with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno in June 2007.
A
two-week trip to Fez,
Morocco where the six recorded led to the band
experimenting with North African sounds and indicating the album
would be more experimental than their previous efforts.
During the album sessions, on 31 March 2008, it was confirmed that
U2 signed a 12 year deal with Live
Nation worth an estimated $100 million (£50 million), which
includes Live Nation controlling the band's merchandise,
sponsoring, and their official website.

The band completed No Line on the Horizon in December
2008, and it was released on 27 February 2009. The album received
generally positive reviews, but critics noted the end result was
not as experimental as expected.

The band have said they have material from the No Line on the
Horizon sessions that could form another album, provisionally
titled Songs of Ascent. Bono says it would be "a more
meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage" and may be released in
2010.

The U2 360° Tour began on 30 June
2009 and features European and North American stadium dates in
2009, with additional shows in 2010. The shows feature a 360-degree
staging/audience configuration, in which the fans surround the
stage from all sides. On 25 June 2010 the band will headline the
Glastonbury
Festival for a special event with a different stage-setting
than with the rest of the tour.

Musical style

Since their inception, U2 have developed and maintained a
distinctly recognisable sound, with emphasis on melodic
instrumentals and expressive, larger-than-life vocals. This
approach is rooted partly in the early influence of record producer
Steve Lillywhite at a time when the
band was not known for musical proficiency. The Edge has
consistently used a rhythmic echo and a signature delay to craft his guitar work, coupled
with an Irish-influenced drone played
against his syncopated melodies that ultimately yields a
well-defined ambient, chiming sound. Bono has nurtured his falsetto operatic voice and has exhibited a notable
lyrical bent towards social, political, and personal subject matter
while maintaining a grandiose scale in his songwriting. In
addition, The Edge has described U2 as a fundamentally live
band.

Despite these broad consistencies, U2 have introduced new elements
into their musical repertoire with each new album. U2's early sound
was influenced by bands such as Television and Joy
Division, and has been described as containing a "sense of
exhilaration" that resulted from The Edge's "radiant chords" and
Bono's "ardent vocals". U2's sound began with post-punk roots and minimalistic and uncomplicated
instrumentals heard on Boy and October, but
evolved through War to include aspects of rock anthem,
funk, and dance rhythms to become more versatile and aggressive.
Boy and War were labelled "muscular and
assertive" by Rolling Stone, influenced in large part by
Lillywhite's producing. The Unforgettable Fire, which
began with the Edge playing more keyboards than guitars, as well as
follow-up The Joshua Tree, had Brian
Eno and Daniel Lanois at the
production helm. With their influence, both albums achieved a
"diverse texture". The songs from The Joshua Tree and
Rattle and Hum placed more emphasis on Lanois-inspired
rhythm as they mixed distinct and varied styles of gospel and blues
music, which stemmed from the band's burgeoning fascination with
America's culture, people and places. In the 1990s, U2 reinvented
themselves as they began using synthesizers, distortion, and electronic beats derived from alternative rock, industrial music, dance, and hip-hop on Achtung Baby, Zooropa,
and Pop. The 2000s had U2 returning to a stripped-down
sound, with less obvious use of synthesizers and effects and a more
traditional rhythm.

Lyrics and themes

Social and political commentary, often embellished with Christian religious and spiritual imagery, are
a major aspect of U2's lyrical content. Songs such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Silver
and Gold", and "Mothers of the Disappeared" were motivated by
current events of the time. The former was written about the troubles in Northern Ireland, while the latter concerns the struggle of mothers whose children were
kidnapped and killed under Argentina's military dictatorship that began in
1976.

Bono's personal conflicts and turmoil inspired family colour songs
like "Mofo", "Tomorrow" and "Kite". An emotional yearning or pleading
frequently appears as a lyrical theme, in tracks such as "Yahweh", "Peace on Earth", and "Please". Much of U2's songwriting and music
is also motivated by contemplations of loss and anguish, coupled
with hopefulness and resiliency, themes that are central to The
Joshua Tree. Some of these lyrical ideas have been amplified
by Bono and the band's personal experiences during their youth in
Ireland, as well as Bono's campaigning and activism later in his
life. U2 have used tours such as Zoo TV
and PopMart to caricature social
trends, such as media overload and consumerism, respectively.

While the band and its fans often affirm the political nature of
their music, U2's lyrics and music have been criticized as
apolitical because of their vagueness and "fuzzy imagery", and a
lack of any specific references to actual people or
characters.

Campaigning and activism

Since the early 1980s, the members of U2—as a band and
individually—have collaborated with other musicians, artists,
celebrities, and politicians to address issues concerning poverty,
disease, and social injustice.

In 1984,
Bono and Adam Clayton participated in Band Aid to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. The initiative produced the
hit charity single "Do They
Know It's Christmas?", which would be the first among several
collaborations between U2 and Bob Geldof.
In July 1985, U2 played Live Aid, a
follow-up to Band Aid's efforts. Bono and his wife Ali, invited by
World Vision, later visited Ethiopia
where they witnessed the famine first hand. Bono would later say
this laid the groundwork for his Africa campaigning and some of his
songwriting.

Since 2000, Bono's campaigning has included Jubilee 2000 with Bob Geldof, Muhammad Ali, and others to promote the
cancellation of third world debt during the Great Jubilee. In January 2002, Bono
co-founded the multinational NGO, DATA,
with the aim of improving the social, political, and financial
state of Africa. He continued his campaigns for debt and HIV/AIDS
relief into June 2002 by making high-profile visits to
Africa.

Product Red, a 2006 for-profit brand
seeking to raise money for the Global
Fund, was founded, in part, by Bono. The ONE Campaign, the US counterpart of Make Poverty History, has been shaped
by his efforts and vision. Bono has also teamed up with Yahoo! to promote the ONE Campaign, which Yahoo! has
helped to re-develop.

U2 and Bono's social activism have not been without its critics
however. Several authors and activists who publish in politically
left journals such as CounterPunch have
decried Bono's support of political figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, as well as his "essential
paternalism". Other news sources have more generally questioned the
efficacy of Bono's campaign to relieve
debt and provide assistance to Africa. Tax and development
campaigners have also criticized the band's move from Ireland to
the Netherlands to reduce its tax bill.

Most recently, Bono appeared and performed The Beatles songs in the movie Across the Universe (2007).
Bono and The Edge are also writing the music to Spider-Man: The
Musical, expected to open in February 2010. Additionally, The
Edge created the theme song for Season 1 and 2 of the television
series The
Batman.

Island Records boss Chris Blackwell initially tried to
discourage them from their choice of producers, believing that just
when the band were about to achieve the highest levels of success,
Eno would "bury them under a layer of avant-garde nonsense".
(McCormick (2006), page 151)

McCormick (2006), page 151

Graham, (2004), pages 23–24

de la Parra (1994), pages 62–63

Rolling Stone, which was critical of the album version
of "Bad", described its live performance as a 'show stopper'.

U asked U2! msn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2007;
Furthermore, Bono described the show as "one of the toughest and
one of the sweetest nights of my life". ( Bono in Conversation.The Independent (26
September 1997). Retrieved 15 January 2007)